The manufacture of circuit boards involves the production of a multitude of circuit boards manufactured from a single array, referred to as a circuit board array. The circuit board arrays are manufactured, tooled, and populated with electronic devices, and then cleaved into individual circuit boards so that the individual circuit boards can be assembled into a desired application. The process of removing individual circuit boards from a circuit board array is commonly referred to as de-paneling. One of the methods of de-paneling boards is routing. Circuit board routing is the process by which a number of tabs on a circuit board array are cleaved in order to singulate one circuit board from another circuit board and/or from the excess material (scrap) that may be adjacent to the circuit board. The tabs on the connected circuit board array are routed by a rotating mechanism containing an appropriate bit. The bit is positioned in an opening at the perimeter of the circuit board adjacent to the tab to be routed. The bit moves through the tab and grinds out the tab creating dust and debris, which must be removed.
Circuit board routing uses a fixture to locate and hold the circuit board while the circuit board is being routed. The fixture keeps the circuit board from moving during the routing process. As a circuit board is routed, a vacuum system is used to collect dust created during the routing operation. For dust collection to be effective, the suction created by a vacuum system must be concentrated at the area being routed. A vacuum system creates a space where the pressure is below normal atmospheric pressure, and has a practical result of imposing a suction on that space. A vacuum system applied to a small surface area has a greater suction velocity (pull) then when the same vacuum system is applied to a larger surface area. However, concentrating a vacuum system at the point of the routing operation becomes much more difficult when the circuit board is highly populated with electronic devices, such as integrated circuits, capacitors, resistors and other components.
Current vacuum systems apply suction over a broad surface area of the circuit board array and are unable to sufficiently remove the dust that accumulates in the spaces surrounding where the tabs have been routed. The resulting accumulation of dust can have a detrimental impact on the functionality of the electrical devices housed in the circuit board and/or create environmental concerns due to airborne dust.
As a result, it was desirable to provide an improved vacuum system employed to remove dust from circuit boards.